


The Escape

by magicsophicorn



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 16:52:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3536933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicsophicorn/pseuds/magicsophicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma and Regina plan to run away together, with a little help from Neal. (Part three of <i>Accidentally in Love</i> series.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Follows on from [Just Friends](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3266348) and [Accidentally In Love](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3244625). Please make sure to read them first, or this will make no sense! Thanks to who asked for more of this story, hope you enjoy it.
> 
>  **UPDATE: THIS FIC HAS MOVED!** From now on all new chapters will be posted to <http://archiveofourown.org/works/3244625>  
>  I realised I should have posted this as one multi-chapter fic rather than a series, so I thought it better to switch over while the chapter count was low!

Emma worried for two whole days about how to tell Regina what Neal had said, until Regina finally confronted her about it.

"Emma, what's bothering you?" Regina's brow was wrinkled in concern, "You've been distant and distracted for the past couple of days. I hoped you would tell me when you were ready, but you haven't said anything so then I thought maybe you were waiting for me to ask…"

Regina was sat on the end of her bed and Emma was pacing the room, completely unable to keep herself still out of nervousness.

This was it. She had to tell her now. But how?

Emma stopped pacing and turned to face Regina. She opened her mouth… But no sound came out.

She snapped her jaw shut and started pacing again.

"Emma, please, you're really starting to worry me."

Emma took a deep calming breath and tried again. Maybe it would be easier if she didn't look at Regina. She continued pacing as she finally managed to speak.

"Neal knows about us."

Emma glanced over at Regina and the look of absolute terror on her face instantly stopped her in her tracks.

Perhaps that hadn't been the best way to say it.

"Oh, no, it's okay!" Emma rushed over to sit next to Regina, placing a reassuring hand on her arm. "He's not angry or anything. In fact he… He suggested that we run away to another kingdom… So that we could be together, properly. He said he'd help us do it. If we wanted."

Emma watched Regina's face carefully. She looked utterly shocked.

"I… I don't understand…" she murmured.

"He and I have always been very close. We're best friends, really." Emma said with a small smile, "I've never told him my secret, but it turns out he knew anyway. He could just tell. But he said he doesn't care, that he loves me and just wants me to be happy. That's why he thinks we should run away. We can't be together here, because of the marriage and my parents, but if we managed to get to another kingdom and claim sanctuary, they wouldn't be able to force us to come back."

Suddenly all the nerves returned full force to Emma. What if Regina didn't actually want to be with her? What if she would rather stay here married to Neal? It would certainly be easier. Safer. Well, apart from trying to remain 'just friends' and the fear of being caught when they inevitably failed at that… 

Emma quickly pulled her hand away from Regina's arm, stood, and began pacing the room again.

"I know it's a lot to take in, and I'm sorry for springing all this on you so suddenly. I just didn't know how to tell you. I don't even know if you would want to run away with me, to be with me. I know we're just friends. I mean I'd completely understand if you want to stay here married to Neal. He's a really good guy. The best, in fact. And it would certainly be safer. I mean, if we were to get caught trying to run away together… I can't even imagine what my parents would do, but it wouldn't be good."

Emma turned at the end of the room to pace it once more, only to come face to face with Regina, who had stood and walked over to Emma without her noticing.

Her breath hitched as Regina reached up and cupped her face softly in her hands, before leaning in and kissing her.

It was so different to all their previous kisses.

This wasn't that inescapable magnetic pull that they found themselves powerless to fight, this was deliberate. It was chosen. 

As their lips parted Regina rested her forehead against Emma's and closed her eyes.

"There is nothing I want more in this life than to be with you," Regina whispered softly, and Emma felt the breath of each word on her lips.

Emma couldn’t help the tears that slid down her cheeks at Regina's words, and she pulled her into a tight embrace, wanting to be as close as physically possible to her, and wishing she would never have to let go.

She felt Regina shake in her arms, and realised she was laughing.

Reluctantly Emma pulled back to look her, frowning in confusion.

Regina had wet tear tracks down her cheeks to match Emma's, but her smile was radiant and joyful.

"Let's do it," she said breathily, "let's run away together."

\-------------------

Try as she might, Emma just couldn't seem to catch Neal on his own to talk to him about their plan.

Patience had never been one of Emma's strong suits, and after two more days she was so desperate that she decided to say something, discretely of course, over dinner.

"Oh by the way Neal," Emma started, trying her hardest to sound casual, "Regina and I talked about your suggestion and we think it's a great idea."

Neal looked up from his plate, his brow furrowed in confusion.

Emma stared into his eyes, raising her eyebrows slightly, willing him to understand the meaning behind her words. They were best friends and siblings, surely he would get it?

Neal's eyebrows raised slightly in surprise and Emma knew he had understood.

"What suggestion was that dear?" Snow enquired from the head of the table, and Emma felt an icy wave of fear wash over her. She instantly regretted her decision to say anything in front of her parents.

Luckily Neal was far more composed, and adept at lying to their parents, than she was.

"Oh just a little riding trip we were thinking of taking, that's all," he said, and Emma tried to hide a smirk at his choice of words. She didn't dare look up from her plate to see her mother's reaction, but she did chance a glance at Regina, who was also studying her plate intently.

"Hmmm, well don't go too far. It's dangerous out there." Snow said, and Emma couldn't help but pick up on the suspicious edge in her voice.

Emma fidgeted all through the rest of dinner. Surely her mother couldn't suspect anything from what she'd said? It had been so vague. But what if she _knew_ , the way Neal had just known…

No. She couldn't know. She'd never shown any hint of knowing Emma's secret. She was just being paranoid. Everything would be fine.

It had to be. 

\-------------------

"What the hell were you thinking Emma? Saying something in front of Mother and Father!"

Neal, Regina and Emma were all gathered in Emma's room.

"I'm sorry! But I was discreet, wasn't I? I just couldn't get you alone and I needed to tell you!"

Neal rolled his eyes. "You really need to learn some patience Emma."

Emma agreed, actually, but didn't think that was likely to happen any time soon.

"Yeah, yeah, so what's the plan then genius?" she huffed.

"Well the riding trip is actually the perfect excuse. We'll tell them we're going for a ride, and that we need to get an early start. Then we leave in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep. When they wake up in the morning they'll just think we left early to go on our riding trip, and they won't think to come and look for us until the evening when we don't come back, which will give us at least a day's head start."

Neal look really proud of himself, but something about what he'd said was niggling in the back of Emma's brain.

"Wait a minute," Emma said, realising what it was, "we? You mean, you're coming with us?"

Neal looked down at his feet shuffling them slightly.

"Well, you know, I was hoping, I mean, if you guys didn't mind… Look I know that this is all so that you two can live happily ever after, and believe me that's still what I want to happen. But I just realised… I don't think I can cope with living here with our parents without you Em! Plus I'd just miss you too much, I mean you're my best friend…"

Emma couldn't help but smile at his words. Truth be told she had been thinking along the same lines. She knew that if she ran away she'd miss him like crazy, and that living with their parents could be, well, suffocating. They did love their children, Emma didn't doubt that, it was just that they had very set ideas over how they should be, what they should do, and how the rest of their lives were meant to play out. That's what it meant to be the child of Queen Snow and King David. Without Emma there to share the burden, Neal would be forced to bear the responsibilities and the pressure alone, and Emma knew that that wasn't fair on him.

Emma jumped up and threw her arms around him.

"Oh Neal, of course you can come with us. Just, you know, don't go thinking I'm going to share Regina with you… I know she's technically still your wife, but if you touch her I'll kill you. You know I'm better with a sword than you are."

Neal laughed and Regina spluttered in embarrassment.

"Um, excuse me, do I not get a say in this?" Regina asked, her eyebrows raised incredulously.

Emma let go of Neal and turned to face her with a smirk.

"Okay Regina, who do you want to be with, me or Neal, or maybe both of us?"

Regina's cheeks instantly went red in embarrassment and Emma thought it was the most adorable thing she'd ever seen.

"Yes, well, okay, you've made your point," she said, sounding as flustered as she looked, "So, moving on. Where exactly are we going to go? We need to make sure no one finds us, don't we?"

Neal and Emma became instantly serious again.

"We need to get to another kingdom where we can claim sanctuary. None of our neighbouring kingdoms will grant us sanctuary, they would have too much to lose by antagonising our parents. So we'll have to go further away. If we go south, through your kingdom Regina, it'll be more likely that people might help us if we need them to, and then we can come out the other side and into Ilyria. They are most likely to grant us sanctuary as there's no way our parents would declare war on them, they're too powerful, and I've heard that in their kingdom arranged marriages are highly frowned upon, so they'll be more sympathetic to our reasons for running away. I think that's our best shot."

It all sounded so terrifying. Emma was suddenly acutely aware of just how dangerous what they were doing actually was. Not just for themselves, but for their kingdoms too. If things went wrong there was the possibility that they could start a war, all because she wanted to be with Regina. But as she looked over at her, Emma knew that all of that was a risk she was willing to take. For even the slightest chance that they could be together Emma would risk anything, and everything.

"So," she asked, steeling her resolve, "when are we leaving then?"

\--------------------

Emma was once again pacing nervously in her room. She really wanted to be swinging her sword at her bedposts, that was much better stress relief, but that would make too much noise and it was important that everyone was asleep.

Tonight was the night. They were running away.

They still had to wait a few more hours though. It was late evening and some people had gone to bed already, including Snow and David, but there were still enough servants up around the castle that they couldn't go yet. They would have to wait until the dead of night, when everyone except the guards were sleeping.

Emma thought perhaps she should try and get some sleep now since they would be riding through the night, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to, not with the way her insides were twisting with nerves. They'd planned as best they could, and it _was_ a good plan, but there was still the possibility of something going wrong, of getting caught.

There was a noise in the corridor and Emma jumped. She strained her ears. There were footsteps. They were definitely heading towards her room.

Emma grabbed her sword just as her door began to slowly creak open.

When Regina's head peeked round the door Emma felt herself instantly relax.

"Regina!" she whispered, sheathing her sword and putting it back with her bag (which she'd packed and re-packed at least five times already this evening), "what are you doing here?"

Regina slipped into the room and closed the door quietly behind her. She was wearing plain green leggings and a tan riding coat. Emma smiled, she thought Regina looked so much more like herself when she was dressed like this than when she was forced to wear elaborate princess dresses. Although she did look exceedingly beautiful in the princess dresses, Emma couldn't deny that.

Regina set her travelling bag down just inside the doorway. 

"I was going crazy being alone, I needed to see you, I'm so nervous," Regina whispered back, twisting her hands in front of her and chewing her bottom lip.

In three quick strides Emma crossed the room and wrapped Regina in a hug.

It felt so good to be able to do that now. To not have to hold herself back and pretend like she didn't want to hold Regina all the time.

"Me too," she whispered, "but it's okay, it'll all be fine, we'll live happily ever after, you'll see."

Regina buried her face in Emma's shoulder, her arms slipping round Emma's waist and squeezing. They stayed like that for some time, and Emma felt Regina relax the longer they stood there holding each other. 

Eventually she felt Regina yawn against her neck and Emma chuckled softly.

"We still have a few hours until we can leave, why don't we try to get some sleep?" 

Regina pulled away from Emma and nodded with a small smile.

They climbed into opposite sides of Emma's bed, and she suddenly felt nervous again, but for a very different reason this time.

Regina immediately snuggled into Emma's side, laying her head on her shoulder and throwing an arm over her waist. Emma couldn't help but smile, and the brief bout of nerves vanished like early morning mist.

Emma combed her fingers through Regina's hair and she hummed happily.

"I think we should get a farm," Regina whispered into Emma's neck.

"Hmm?"

"When we get to Ilyria, after they give us sanctuary, we should get a little farm there to live on."

Emma smiled. Regina's fingers found their way under the hem of her shirt and she started tracing patterns on Emma's side.

"We can keep chickens, maybe a goat too, and we'll grow vegetables."

"Don't forget a dog, we should get a dog too," Emma said, feeling her heart soar. She couldn't imagine anything more perfect than the life Regina was painting for them.

Regina hummed and her fingers slowed, resting on Emma's stomach. She was nearly asleep.

"I love you, Regina," Emma whispered into her hair, feeling like her chest would explode with how much she meant it.

"I love you too Emma," Regina whispered back, kissing Emma's neck and yawning.

Emma smiled again, still running her fingers through Regina's hair until she felt her breathing even out as sleep overtook her.

Emma closed her eyes and tried to join her.

\-------------------

Emma was just on the verge of sleep when she was awoken by a loud bang. She jerked awake and felt Regina jump against her side.

As she opened her eyes, Emma felt a tidal wave of terror flood over her.

The bang that had woken them had been the door to her chambers being thrown open, and four palace guards were now barrelling into the room.

Emma scrambled out of bed, trying to get to her sword. She had never been quick to wake, and her brain was struggling to process what was happening around her.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Regina scramble out of bed and try to run towards the door.

A young guard stepped in front of her, she recognised him as one of the guards that Neal was friends with, and Emma punched him square in the jaw. He went down like a sack of potatoes.

Emma's mind raced. What had happened? Why were the guards here? Had they found out about their plan? Had Neal told the guards that he was friends with and they had betrayed them? Or worse, had Neal betrayed them? Had it all been a trick?

Across the room one of the other guards blocked Regina's path to the door. Without even glancing at Emma, he walked forward and picked Regina up by the waist, hoisting her over his shoulder.

She thrashed and hit her fists against his back, but he was a mountain of a man, and he merely ignored her as he turned and started to carry her from the room.

Emma screamed in fury and rushed forward, trying to follow them, but she suddenly felt a sharp pain at the base of her skull. Her vision swam and she felt herself falling as everything around her went black…

**Author's Note:**

>  **UPDATE: THIS FIC HAS MOVED!** From now on all new chapters will be posted to <http://archiveofourown.org/works/3244625>  
>  I realised I should have posted this as one multi-chapter fic rather than a series, so I thought it better to switch over while the chapter count was low!


End file.
